The Army’s latest response to contested logistics is an uncrewed one-ton VTOL lifter

Why put soldiers and marines at risk by having them physically transport materiel the “last mile” of a logistics supply chain with crewed vehicles, boats, and aircraft? That’s a question both the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have already asked themselves, and their responses are similar: develop autonomous, uncrewed platforms that can perform dangerous logistics tasks in contested environments not only for the last mile but throughout every theater of operation.

“Innovation is the coin of the realm, and we are committed to producing solutions that will help DOD navigate the changing landscape of warfare,” said Rob Geckle, Chairman and CEO of Airbus U.S. Space & Defense. “Ultimately, we want to provide our Soldiers, Airmen, Sailors, Marines, Guardians, and Coastguardsmen with the right tools to deter our adversaries, and if called on, fight and win.”

In the Army, the charge to help develop autonomy falls with the Contested Logistics Cross Functional Team out of Army Futures Command. Said its commanding general, Gen. James Rainey, “Autonomous and robotic systems are going to disrupt the land domain, starting now.”

One of the CFT’s first initiatives is the “1 Ton Capable Cargo UAS.” This platform will have a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capability from both ground and marine environments, with or without cargo. The lifter must also “be terminally guided from a variety of end-users with no specialized training as well as from various locations [by] field personnel, medical personnel, supply personnel, remote command center,” stated the recent request for information.

Airbus U.S. Space & Defense responded to the Army’s RFI with details about how it can satisfy those requirements and many more – using examples and lessons learned from its prototype program developing an autonomous UH-72 Lakota helicopter for the Marine Corps, details of which are discussed below.

“When using manned aircraft in an unmanned configuration for logistics you’re able to take seats, life support, and instruments out of the cabin, which makes room for more payload as well as special cargo handling equipment designed to onload and offload standardized cargo containers quickly with minimum personnel,” said Carl Forsling, senior manager, business development and strategy for Airbus U.S., noting that some redesigns of the doors and hatches are involved.

“Adapting an existing manned aircraft to an unmanned configuration that can carry more cargo, further, and with less maintenance support removes a big part of the risk and cost of a new airframe design. When you already have a manned aircraft that fits the bill performance-wise, and requires just some conversion, it’s very effective from a programmatic and a production standpoint.”

The U.S. Army and Army National Guard have their own fleets of Lakota numbering around 480 – with the Army National Guard having received 18 of the improved UH-72 Bravo model – and are observing the progress of the Marine Corps’ prototype autonomy program managed by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).

There are no safe zones anymore in contested logistics, which creates a primary danger for Soldiers and Marines in forward areas who can’t be adequately resupplied due to the threats against ground, naval, and air logistics platforms. The shift to uncrewed platforms is related to a general realignment of logistics away from organic and contracted logistics as wielded during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars where supply lines were generally uncontested.

Russia’s war on Ukraine has shown that logistics are now regularly contested kinetically by precision fires and non-kinetically by drones flying ISR sensors and, more seriously, electronic warfare designed to jam or spoof communications and positioning, navigation, and timing. Potential adversaries in the Indo-Pacific can similarly contest the supply chain.

“Contested logistics are hard enough without running a resupply operation and not getting the right thing,” Army Future Command Chief Gen. James Rainey told Breaking Defense last year. “There’s a lot of room there for progress.”

Autonomy to resupply forward-deployed Marines

Those realities become clear when looking at the vast distances of the Indo-Pacific region and the logistics tail that must remain intact and operational. Across U.S INDOPACOM’s Area of Responsibility, for example, the Marine Corps’ latest operational construct called Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations calls for insertion of small, distributed units of island-hopping Marines amidst the First Island Chain to hold enemy shipping and other elements at risk.

As mentioned, supply lines are exceptionally long in the Pacific and it tends to stress and exceed the capability of what’s organic, especially as the Navy and Marine Corps still operate in many instances under legacy manpower-heavy concepts for logistics. That will only be exacerbated by a conflict in the region.

NAVAIR’s Aerial Logistics Connector (ALC) program is designed to address some of those challenges through the use of autonomous aircraft to resupply marines with weapons, ammunition, food, medical supplies, and other materiel inside the enemy’s weapon engagement zone.

“The ALC should not put people at risk, nor should it require a large number of people to operate, maintain, and sustain,” said Forsling. “That’s important because if you add things that require a lot of support to operate, then you’re adding to the logistical problem while trying to solve it. That requires a capability that does not use a lot of resources at the forward edge and can operate off ships and ashore with minimal sustainment.

“That means it must be autonomous and produced in sufficient quantities so that if it is lost in the course of proceeding through these weapons’ engagement zones then it’s not an irreplaceable asset that stops the mission from continuing. We’ve kept those lessons in mind as we developed our concept for the Aerial Logistics Connector.”

Earlier this year, NAVAIR awarded Airbus U.S. Space & Defense a Phase 1 Other Transactional Authority Agreement (OTA) in support of the Marine Corps’ ALC. in response, Airbus U.S. Space & Defense’s developing an unmanned variant of the UH-72B Lakota platform under the OTA.

“Our unmanned UH-72 logistics connector leverages nearly two decades of U.S. military capability and offers Marines a versatile, affordable and enduring solution to address logistics missions around the globe,” said Geckle. “We look forward to supporting the Marine Corps with this latest modernization of the Lakota platform.”

The UH-72 logistics connector’s cabin allows for easy loading and unloading of multiple types of cargo and standardized containers.

The award is part of a Middle Tier of Acquisition (MTA) rapid prototyping program that will provide the USMC with aircraft prototypes to demonstrate autonomous logistics capabilities through a series of operationally relevant experiments.

“Right now, logistics is done with traditional amphibious shipping and naval maritime prepositioning of ships, as well as theater resupply that originates out of places like Japan and Guam,” said Forsling. “That all depends, however, on getting those supplies to the last tactical mile to reinforce a platoon out there operating a missile launcher or sensor.

“An autonomous version of the Army’s UH-72B, widely used around the world as the commercial H145 twin-engine light utility helicopter, meets the Marine Corps’ requirements to transport assets at long range and high speed without risking lives,” said Forsling. “We’ve modified it for the Marine Corps’ special handling requirements for cargo, as well as for UAS operations,” said Forsling. “We’ve just entered the rapid prototyping OTA with several other companies in a competitive process, and we’re beginning a series of design events and flight demonstrations of our air vehicle.”

Complementary missions with the same solution

The Army’s need to resupply maneuver forces without putting soldiers at risk – both the ones executing the logistics mission and those on the front lines waiting for resupply – resembles in many ways the Marine Corps’ need to conduct logistics in contested environments for expeditionary operations. Each service operates across all warfighter domains – ground, maritime, air, space, and cyber – at a time when all are contested by kinetics, drones, and EW.

It’s not a coincidence that the mission set for the USMC’s Aerial Logistics Connector and the Army’s 1 Ton Capable Cargo UAS can both be addressed by a VTOL already flying for both services – the UH-72 Lakota.

“The Lakota is the most affordable from a development, acquisition, and sustainment standpoint and is currently available for the Marine Corps’ mission,” said Forsling. “It’s the lowest-risk option, and with the addition of a MOSA-compliant digital backbone has room for growth in terms of mission capability, obsolescence management, without the risk of vendor lock. Those are the right entry points for the Marine Corps requirements for the ALC.”

For many of the same reasons, the Army can transition a VTOL to an autonomous cargo platform – based on the upgraded UH-72 Bravo model – already in production, Airbus notes.